Monthly Archives: November 2012

Sillyboy, the band whose awesome album ‘Nature of Things’ we reviewed earlier has come out with a super video for the song ‘Coast to Coast’ from the same album. A great ‘bokeh-visuals’ video with interesting camera angles and wonderfully ironic moments which perfectly suit the mood of the song. Enjoy viewing the video or listening to the track:

Like this:

So, how about some funky disco vibes then? Swim and Fly on the dance floor to the tunes of this week’s featured band : ‘The Blac Swan’ from NY, USA. According to their soundcloud description, ‘They make modern classics’. Don’t go in expecting Ludwig Van and you won’t be disappointed would be my 2 cents.

A little more detail about them: It’s been about 2 years since they started out. Until now they’d been doing remixes and djing while working on their original songs, and they now have their debut EP released. It’s title is We Flyin’. As we are in the mood for equality today (as some feisty Czech woman who was crowned Miss Earth today might want for the world), we would include our favourite original and favourite remix from the bunch:

The Blac Swan have achieved considerable success in a short while; We Flyin’ had been ranked #1 on Nu Disco Release Chart for 1 week and #14 on overall Beatport’s album Release Chart. If you like what you hear head over to their soundcloud page: http://soundcloud.com/theblacswan and you can buy their tracks on Beatport. Enjoy the funky journey!

Like this:

Just surfing through soundcloud, I came across this conventional ‘pop-rock’ band from Italy called The Rideouts. I particularly liked some of their stuff, as it brings back memories from the decade I grew up in, aka the 90’s. The sound is very Deff Leppard, Roxette, #yougetthegeneralideadon’tyou and it is nice to charter known territory for a change. One of the songs that I particularly liked is called ‘Smooth Lover’. Prego:

If you like what you hear and are in the mood for some nostalgia, listen to the rest of their stuff here. Graci y A presto!

Like this:

In focus this week is the ‘Indie Rock’ band from down under called ‘The Night’. Having spent some years in Sydney myself and having attended many concerts by the local bands, I always felt that the music there is of such great quality but somehow not that many get famous at the world stage. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few like ‘Wolfmother’, ‘The Vines’, ‘John Butler Trio’ and ‘The Presets’, who have achieved fame since the days of ACDC , but that seems like a small percentage compared to the plethora of great originals you witness at the top floor of ‘Three Wise Monkeys’ on Friday Nights or even simply while having your Sunday Morning Coffee outside Myer’s on Market Street.

What I mean to say is, there is a lot of talent in Australia and ‘The Night’ with their eclectic mix of sounds ranging from violins to electronica are no exception. The vocals are crisp, the production quality is great and the melodies are addictive. Let us start with ‘Medicate Me’, which is a beautiful tune, and incorporates a wide variety of instruments like the trumpet, the flugel horn, the viola, the bass guitar and some electronica. It all blends together beautifully with the acoustic trumpet sound in the background making it perfectly punchy. Have a listen yourself:

The next track I found particularly good is ‘Reassimilate’, which actually sounds like a more acoustic or even a bit folksy ‘GNR’. Very well done and very beautifully sung:

A bit of information about the band: The Night is Aidan Gaspar, Liam Berry, Neal Critchley, Nicola Self, Scott Allan, Steve Taylor. And they feature some guest musicians from time to time, to add more dimensions to their sound. From what I could gather, they are based out of Sydney. Their set is available for listening here. The songs are available for purchase on iTunes.

Like this:

Two’s company, Three’s a threesome, All the etcetera only completes the orchestra! In the world of symbiotic collaboration, there is no such thing as a crowd. Firstly, there is ‘Casual Lab’, a house, deep house and tech house independent label based in Berlin that seeks to expand and promote special works worldwide. With new innovative concepts in art, technology and multimedia, Casual Lab is focusing on releasing high quality music and building up newcomers alongside with international guest artists. They promote some really talented new artistes like Sin Tek (whose origins even my Sherlockian capabilities haven’t managed to uncover) and Grooveid (a groovy Italian artiste). Then there are DJs like Skeet, who add their magic around the works crated by such artistes and platforms such as soundcloud, beatport, etc where all these creators share their works for us discerning listeners to relish. Such tunes, based on probability, luck, etc get picked by bloggers like me and get featured on specialized blog publicizing websites like hypem. After all such filtering, the audiences then rate the tracks and these votes separate the hits and the misses (atleast in the online world). As a toast to so many parts working together in harmony, without really meeting one another, here’s to the beauty of sound:

Like this:

If you enjoyed the absolutely delirious track ‘I love my Daft Punk’ posted earlier, some more joy has come the way of the universe of pre-shrunk jeans. The artiste Eluusif, demonstrates some serious ‘Space Balls’ in the form of his imaginatively titled EP ‘Aliens do it Better’. The sound is danceworthy dubstep, vocals are cheesy, and the lyrics follow the same nonsensically brilliant pattern which probed our ‘senses’ and stirred our imaginations in the previous single. Without further ado, a couple of top picks form the EP:

You can listen and download the rest of the EP here. You can also read the press release for the EP , check out some awesome album art here.

Like this:

If you enjoyed the strictly Al’Bum’ Art displayed above, you would understand that sometimes that is what life hands you. Packaged beautifully but you gotta keep an eye out for the shit storm that might come your way sooner than you’d be prepared for. Time ticks, perceptions skew, some voices remain mesmerising, trippy and haunting like you imagined them too. Enjoy one such melody to tide over such times like a good single malt with coupla cubes of ice:

Recommended to me by a good friend, I finally got down to listening to Chattanooga, US-based and imaginatively titled: ‘Machines are people too’. With all the artificial intelligence out-of-the-way, this is a fun, electronic pop band. The songs are slick, catchy, well made and danceable. A pot-pourri of ‘The Killers, ‘Roxette’, ‘Two Door Cinema Club’ kinda sound, if I may take a shot at classification. I can’t think of a better mood to start the Friday night with. Happy listening and a fantastic weekend to you all:

If you like what you hear, they have a website with all possible information about their gigs, free downloads, facebook/twitter/soundcloud/bandcamp links. Have a look, bookmark it, follow them, spread the word, not necessarily in that order ;)!

Incorporating the pop-swing sound first pioneered in the late 50’s/early 60’s, which has now evolved into what we call ‘easy-listening, the band in highlight this week is ‘The Wanderlings’ from Nottingham, Britain. Dreamy music, vocals crooned in a lazy haze and videos which refreshingly have ‘what look like real women’ instead of the stick figures that adorn most of today’s media, the experience of listening to them is like taking a trip down memory lane, when things were simpler, prettier, realistic and somehow more enduring. Sit back and let the sounds waft through your senses:

And also enjoy the voluptiousness in:

If you like what you hear and see, you can follow them on facebook, download their music legitimately on soundcloud and watch their videos on youtube.

Like this:

Park Planet are a Glasgow based band who like strong melodies and great tunes, at least according to the self description on their soundcloud page. Talk about understatement! I got wind of this band by the soundcloud weather reports and a few eargasms later allow me declare that they seem to be number ‘667’, i.e. one step ahead of this beast called music which consumes most of my time, attention and devotion.

The electronica, drums, guitar lines and vocals blend perfectly and create a mood which you probably won’t discover in the music of many of their contemporaries. The lyrics are usually a simple mantra, almost chant-like to ensure that you become worshippers, followers or in cases like yours truly, evangelists.